I was driving in an unfamiliar area at midnight in Thorold when I accidentally rolled past a stop sign, I saw the stop sign too late. An OPP cop happens to see that and pulls me over, when he comes over he just screams a series of questions at me, do you know what a stop sign means? what does a stop sign mean? you are a university student can you read? can you see properly? do you need glasses? Are you drunk? Then he shines the light to my face and asks for license and insurance slip.

I provided my driving licence and he made other comments while I looked for the insurance slip. He was impatient, he walked back to his cruiser and came back 10mins later to tell me the plates on the car are not registered to the correct car, and I'm just there looking at him sheepishly because the car is not mine and I didn't know what to say. He then proceeded to write me up two tickets one for failing to stop and the other for use of plates not authorised for vehicle.

He then tells me the car will be towed as I can't drive it without plates, he walks back to his cruiser and calls a tow guy, a fellow OPP cop pulls beside him, they talk for a bit and another OPP cop comes and they both take my plates. I pleaded with him to follow me while I drop the car 500 metres away where my passenger lived and he can take the plates but he refused. He gave my car keys to the tow guy who charged me $250 to tow it 500m and the guy only takes Credit Card and Cash, I had no cash and he doesn't accept the credit card I own, so he took me and my passenger to the bank and we got out cash and paid him.

What should I do as this is my first ever encounter with police since I began driving in 2012? Should I fight the ticket? Both ticket combined are $280.

The tickets will be hard to fight. You admit to rolling the stop so can't take the stand to offer an opposing view to the officer's testimony and the plates clearly weren't registered to the car or they wouldn't have come up on the computer.

What's the owner of the car saying ? I hope he is at least offering to pay the ticket.

_________________Former Ontario Police Officer. Advice will become less relevant as the time goes by !

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